Page 51 - Studio International - November 1974

Supplement a poster by Klutsis, for example the anti- man whom we await — personified it seems by
the un-neurotic commissar — until his advent
imperialist poster of 1931, with a relief or a
painting by Vasarely. For my money the Klutsis 'Constructivists' (in inverted commas) will go on
Autumn 1974: is constructivist (though I can imagine many providing 'models' for society. If these are
new and recent people classing it as social-realist); whilst the models, related (how?) to the new man, then
Vasarely is geometric, decorative art. Klutsis
I for one am not enthusiastically awaiting his
art books uses modern techniques for making and appearance.
Dr Bann asks how can an historian account
dissemination, and his work has a clearly defined
aim which is easily communicated, since he is for the fact that artists in the 30s, 40s, 50s and
drawing attention to a set of circumstances 60s, working in the abstract geometric art
which are quite objective. Vasarely too uses tradition can regard their work as constructivist.
'multiple' production, and thereby reaches a The simple answer is that they picked up the
wider range of consumers than is normally word as used by Gabo, in ignorance of its
available to an easel painter, but with a product original usage. For, inevitably, once the
whose aim is quite different, (if one is generous Russians had ceased making art objects, and
and allows that it has an aim, and much moved into ... slogans, leaflets, montages,
possibility of achieving that aim given the popular songs, signs, cinema hoardings, street
limited resources of its language). The Klutsis lights, placards, films ... ' Western art historians
position was defined by Mayakovsky in 1922, and artists ceased to document and discuss such
'For the first time it is from Russia, not from work. Obviously this has led to considerable
France, that the most recent word in art has problems in any attempt to reconstruct
come, i.e. Constructivism. Not the constructivist activity. In its stead, and obviously
Constructivism of those who build useless since there was no October impetus in the West,
constructions of tin or wire that could well be the meaning changed radically, applying to a
used for more practical purposes, but formal methodology. Hence Dr Bann can
Constructivism mistaken Constructivism meaning the formal work of the document the tradition on a formal basis, but
The Tradition of Constructivism edited by artist as artisan which serves to mould our even this is not without its problems —
Stephen Bann. 339 pp. 39 black and white practical lives. Mayakovsky's statement was Rodchenko's 'Red, Yellow and Blue'
illustrations. Thames and Hudson, f3.75. written in 1922, and the aims are still somewhat monochromes must have been morphologically
Constructivism must be just about the most hazy; but then abandoning one's role as it had very similar to the '3 canvases' of Ellsworth
abused term in current art usage. Who were the been defined under one social order, and Kelly; in terms of intention there is an
real constructivists, what was the ideology they attempting to define a new role for oneself enormous gulf. Or again, Lissitzky's or Klutsis's
share? These are questions whose answers are under quite new social conditions (or so they dynamic use of photomontage to document
as difficult to agree on as similar ones concerning appeared), must have presented quite a problem communist achievements were readily utilized
dadaists. For some Schwitters was a dada, for of adjustment. Indeed I would go so far as to by the Italian fascists.
others, he was an abstract artist working in an say that Constructivism in the country of its Due to the basic confusion around the term,
informal vein, part of his work has been labelled origin only takes on its full meaning and I can't help feeling that one could have
constructivist. For some Gabo is a constructivist, becomes a clearly definable movement from the assembled an anthology under the same title,
others would judge him an abstract artist mid-1920s, and its highlights occur about a but which took quite a different course, one
working in a formal vein. You can come down decade after it (had) been liberated by — that started from the Mayakovsky position.
in the middle, and call Anthony Caro a the proletarian revolution.' This could have included the contributors to
constructivist (cf. Observer, 15 September). The aims of those round Mayakovsky and Lef and Novy Lef, and would cover a wide
Stephen Bann has assembled a collection of the magazine Lef were to utilize any media, but spectrum of Westerners who might not call
documents stretching from the 1920s to the preferably those with a mass appeal in order to themselves constructivists, but are clearly
1960s that exemplify his understanding of change political consciousness, furthering the working within the Lef tradition, like John
Constructivism. Whilst he is aware of the cause of October. Mayakovsky's verse, Heartfield, to whom the term has been applied,
problems of 'who' and 'what', he doesn't really Tretyakov's plays, Eisenstein's films — all self- and who was in regular contact with those
make clear the criteria he uses to define those declared constructivists — all had this aim. around Novy Lef; Tomas Maldonado an ex-
in the tradition. In his opening sentence however Nowadays one can easily forget the effect of painter and design professor who is now
he does refer to 'geometric, abstract art', and Tretyakov's plays, like Roar China, or the police concerned with the socio-politico context of
one can see that he basically opts for a formal vans lining the streets around the cinema in design; various film-makers — particularly in
tradition, with the odd nod in the direction of Paris when Battleship Potemkin was first shown France; even, perhaps, Hans Haacke with his
the other tradition — the agitational. This there. These things are a world away from the real estate pieces — both factographic and
division corresponds roughly to a political van Doesburg/Vasarely axis. Van Doesburg's agitational. As indicated, some material from
division — liberal and radical. The divergence interest in moving beyond easel painting dropped this tradition has been included, but none from
emerges in two documents from 1920 — Gabo when he was told of public reaction to the after the 1920s, and what there is sits very
and Pevsner's The Realistic Manifesto, and Aubette. Vasarely's work hardly affects one's uneasily in the general context.
Rodchenko and Stepanova's Programme of the consciousness. He, as one of the 'princes of The bibliography is 'selected', but even so
Productivist Group. With Gabo's move to the knowledge', as he calls himself, goes on has some strange inclusions — Maurice Denis;
West a tradition developed concerned with the dreaming of the plasti-cite, a multi-coloured and stranger omissions — works by Camilla Gray,
idea of constructing art works, this fused with a environment (with windows of different shapes Bojko, Davydov and Trotsky, both Rassegna
De Stijl tradition in groups such as abstraction- on a building!); an environment in which the Sovietica and VH 101 published fine special
creation etc., and later groupings. Both factions proletariat remains a class-in-itself — but not issues devoted to the Russian phenomenon. In
used the word Constructivism, or accepted its for itself. But as compensation it finds its sum, it seems to me, that the book documents
usage in respect to their work. The gap between existence 'stimulated' by the application of a tradition of the emasculation of
them was considerable, and was not destined to Vasarely's 'kernel forms' on an environmental Constructivism.
close. It is particularly evident if one compares scale. Dr Bann in his preface talks of the new Ronald Hunt
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